All Saints Day - Connecting Ourselves Now to Our Eschatological Selves through Saints

The first two days of November put the present to the past and the future in observing All Saints Day (November 1) and All Souls Day (November 2) in the Catholic tradition. On these two days, the faithful experience ecclesiological identity: the holy apostolic catholic Church as the communion of saints. All Saints Day is to honor the souls of the holy ones, including the martyrs mentioned in Revelation 6:9, while All Souls Day is to honor the souls are in the final process to become holy, namely, the souls in Purgatory. Therefore, these first two days of November are to honor those who are ahead of us on our journey into the sainthood, which is found in the Kingdom of God that Jesus has promised for those who follow his way.

In fact, the Church has not become her fullness yet, as not everyone in the Church are saint yet. We, the living on earth, are still on a long way to have our souls purified enough to be saints, and many souls of the deceased are still in purgatory, still working hard on their final tuning in their purification process to become saints. The Church will attain her full communion of saint when all the faithful followers of Christ join the multitudes along with the one hundred and forty-four thousand to be sealed from God’s eschatological deconstructive wrath (Revelation 7:1-9). For the Church to become the Bride of Christ the Lamb of God to be in full union with Christ the King at eschaton (Revelation 19:7), the Church must be completely full of saints as all the faithful have washed their robes in the Lamb’s (Christ’s) blood and made them white (Revelation 6:11, 7:14), meaning that their souls become pure enough to be saints by the redeeming power of the precious Blood of Christ.

 The First Reading for All Saints Day Mass, Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14, certainly reflect on how we are to become as parousia draws nearer at eschaton. Through Jesus’ apparition to him, John of Patmos (John the Evangelist) saw an eschatological vision of the process of deconstruction of the whole Creation with God’s wrath upon the all anti-Christ forces in order to bring the eternal reign of Chris the King, and the First Reading captures where saints are protected from this deconstructive process of God’s wrath. The Reading also reminds that what saves us from God’s wrath during the unfolding God’s punishments on Christ’s enemies is the Blood of Christ, which makes saints robe white, symbolizing purity and holiness of their souls. This long unfolding deconstructive process, which begins with the breaking of the First Seal (Revelation 6:1), is like the pre-Pesach ten plagues in Egypt (Exodus 7:14-12:36). Therefore, just as the faithful Israelites were saved from the plagues in Egypt before Pesach to escape safely, the saints are spared from God’s deconstruction process at eschaton (Revelation 6:1-18:24). As the faithful Israelites, who were saved from the pre-Pesach plagues and endured the challenging Exodus journey all the way into the Land of Milk and Honey, the saints, whose souls are purified and protected from God’s deconstructing wrath will be delivered into the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal Kingdom of God, where Christ the King reign.

Echoing a vision of the saints, who have endured tribulations and will continue to endure through God’s deconstructive wrath against the anti-Christ, in the First Reading (Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14), the Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 24: 1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6) sings of them as those who long to see God’s face. This is to remind that the restriction on humans upon the loss of Eden will be wiped out. Therefore, this suggests that the saints are the ones to receive the redemption of the privilege that Adam and Eve had before the Original Sin.

The Second Reading for All Saints Day Mass (1 John 3:1-3) connects us to the sainthood, as both we and the saints envisioned in the First Reading (Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14) are the children of God, whom God the Father has bestowed His love upon. However, we, the living on earth, do not know this truth fully yet. Nevertheless, there is hope that our true identity as the God’s beloved children of God will be revealed in God’s time, as we may also see God, who has created us with His love and in His image. Furthermore, the Second Reading assures us that believing in this promise and keeping the hope on our true identity as God’s beloved children will help our souls become pure. Because pure soul is what a saint has, this is a promising salvific hope for us – to be saved from God’s wrath and to march into the Kingdom of God as the saints, upon enduring God’s wrath’s deconstruction and the heavenly matrimony of the Church and Christ the Lamb.

As the First Reading (Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14) and the Second Reading (1 John 3:1-3) call our attention to the eschatological time, juxtaposing our ultimate identity of sainthood to the saints envisioned in Revelation, the Gospel Reading for All Saints Day Mass (Matthew 5:1-12) tells us that how blessed we, the saints in the making on earth, are and what we need to strive for, in order to find ourselves in the multitudes of the saints in the First Reading. Here, Jesus, whose Blood saves us from God’s wrath and will reign the Kingdom of God, has already told how God is blessing us and  prescribed the way we strive to become saints.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.   (Matthew 5:3-11)

These eight beatitudes are Christian eight-fold path into the sainthood, which begins with humility – being poor in spirit. On this path, we may have to mourn. However, God, who always blesses us, will comfort us. Because we the bound for the sainthood are humble, we are also meek, like Jesus. We fight for justice and act with mercy, practicing Jesus’ new commandment of love (John 14:34-35). Because saints are holy people, we make our hearts pure as God blesses us with His grace, and work for peace. With these virtues, we can endure even persecution all the way to martyrdom.

Back in the old days, All Saints Day was like Christmas and Easter, as it had octave. Though we no longer practice All Saints octave, we can still meditate on what it means to grow into the sainthood – to be in full union with those who have already become saints and to help the souls in purgatory to become saints. This is how we shall start November, which is also the month to end this liturgical year.